History – Page 77 – Tacky Raccoons

The 11th Hour of the 11th Day of the 11th Month

Armistice Day, 1918, now referred to as Veterans’ Day. How many of you know what it means? Bonus points if you know why the USA officially joined the fight after years of Wilsonian isolationism. (Hint: Starts with the letter Z.)

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Note that Germany did not surrender; the Armistice was an agreement to stop fighting, not an admission of defeat. Note also that the Armistice created sanctions that were not enforced. Note that in less than twenty years, national socialists controlled Germany. By 1939 they had rebuilt their armies and weaponry and invaded Poland. Note that there were many “dialogues” and appeasements. Note the beginning of WWII.

Has a familiar ring to it… I’m just sayin’.

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As for Veterans’ Day, there is an excellent publication, Military, that should be read by all. It’s not a glossy rewrite of history, but a monthly newsprint pulp, with first-person accounts from WWII, the Cold War, Korea, Viet Nam, Afganistan and Iraq. It contains snippets of world events, past and present, not normally found in the newspapers, let alone TV, Radio, or the internest news services.

Military provides current non-classified information that the popular main-stream media typically overlooks and ignores. Well worth the admission price of $21.00 a year.

www.milmag.com takes you to the subscription page. I have no monetary connections or interests with this publication, aside from being a fan and subscriber.

The publication is proudly conservative and I recommend it highly. Regardless of your political affiliation, it is not insulting to those of differing opinions. Go for it. —Bunk

[Photo from here.]

Saturday Matinee: One Domino Trashes a Town, and unrelated stuff

According to Arbroath, this was Guiness’ most expensive television advertisement to date, costing 10m pounds (about $2.1 million US bucks). Filmed in a village in Argentina, the whole town came out to watch. If our crack webminers can find a link to a “making of” video, we’ll update this post, but it’s more likely we’ll just tip a stout and be done with it.

Totally unrelated to the video above, our crack webminers turned up a video from 1970, from the Flip Wilson Show. This broadcast changed my life… or at least a good part of it.

The band appeared at Woodstock. Yes, that Woodstock, 1969. These guys played alongside Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Crosby Stills & Nash, Mountain, Arlo Guthrie, Country Joe & the Finch, Richie Havens, Carlos Santana, Joni Mitchell, Melanie, Joan B. Depressed, Bobby Bieber and the SlimJims, Brittney Spears, etc.

Bunk was too young to attend Woodstock, but Bunk was allowed to watch TV. This is what Bunky witnessed at his grandparents house and loved it. ShaNaNa was IT.

This was Bunk’s introduction to DooWop. ShaNaNa sent me on a mission to hear the original versions by the Marcels, the Paragons, Dion, Gene Chandler, the Isley Brothers, the Zodiacs, the Del-Vikings, the Chips, the Chords, the Channels, Harvey & the Moonglows, Shep and the Limelights, the Ronnettes, the Shirelles, Leon Redbone, Led Zeppelin, Dread Zeppelin, Bob Marley and the Wailers, the Police, the Ramones, Elvis Costello, Tom Waits, the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, the Stray Cats, Frank Zappa, the Aquabats, the Skatalites, Moms Mabley and the Beat Farmers (featuring the late Country Dick Montana)… and not necessarily in that order. Oh, and I forgot the Solid Voidz featuring Big Don P.

Fill in the band(s) I might have missed in the comments section.

Have a Sam the Sham Halloween

Is it just me, or are they dancing to “Wooly Bully” by Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs?

Alternate .mp3 version of “Wooly Bully” is available at here along with some other freebees. Rhino Records put out a Best Of compilation on vinyl decades ago, and it’s prolly available on CD.

“Hey there, Little Red Ridin’ Hood… You sure are lookin’ good… You’re everthang that a Big Bad Wolf could want… Ooooooow!”

Saturday Matinee: Halloween

Sorry to pop your bubble of modern-day belief, but Halloween, All Hallow’s Eve, was NOT a celebration of Satan’s birthday. It was a pagan custom designed to keep evil spirits from taking possession of their souls. The evil dead walked on this night, searching for souls to take. The preventative antidote was to dress up as the evil spirits themselves, and thus confuse them through the night so that they could take no souls.

Then Disney came along to give 5-year-olds nightmares with this:

[Link found here.]

But wait! There’s more! Several years ago a friend emailed me this:

Lastly, Karen from SNTC reminded me of the scariest one of all.
Mary’s Back.

Somewhere in Kansas

All that and caught without an oil can. Dorothy’s not gonna have fun today.

[Original photo from GadgetConcierge.]

“I Only Have Eye, For You…”

The Flamingos had a hit with this one in 1959.
“Dubopshibop… oo-ooh, Dubopshibop.”

[Source.]

Danger, danger, danger

WEEKENDER is one of my favorite Sunday newspaper glossy parchment inserts, complete with advertisements for gaudy porcelain figurines of unicorns and mermaids with dolphins, Elvis commemorative plates, weight loss testimonials, uncirculated overpriced coins, specious gossip about famous people that I don’t know and don’t care about. It usually has articles on high blood pressure, prostate cancer, senility and mammograms to give you something to discuss with your family over breakfast.

I lost my original copy of this November 2006 issue, but itch one of the best, in this Bunk’s opinion.

[From the Onion archives.]

Saturday Matinee: Peaches En Regalia

Bunk loves this song, especially THIS version of this song. Looks like SNL footage of Frank Zappa’s 1976 entourage.

[If it doesn’t play, try this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwQogHWkWck%5D

Zappa’s line up back then was amazing. Might be Jean Luc-Ponty on the invisible violin; Terry Bozzio on drums; Ruth Underwood on xylophone; maybe Roy Estrada on bass. Zoot Allures era.

Any FZ fans wanna leave comments to clear this up?

Zappa was only on SNL once, and was banned for mugging too much in the skits. You can find the two other SNL/Zappa vids on the Utubage if you hunt for ’em.

“…they’re pretty good musicians, and the musicians are pretty good…”— FZ, from “Green Rosetta.” Make a muffin really betta.

[UPDATE: Something yanked the link to the video originally posted. Here’s the same video from a different source. –Bunk]

[UPDATE 2: Seems that anything posted from SNL is now verboten. I’ve added a new version of my favorite Peaches. Slightly lesser quality video, but let’s see how long this one lasts. –Bunk]

Hot Wheels: Babe Maggot No.2

I meant “Babe Magnet.” Or maybe I didn’t. Note that the dead cat, Boone’s Farm bottle and the week-old wad of used Pampers all add nuance to artistic expression of the moment. Note also that the windows are rolled up.

But here’s the genius inherent in this work of Art: It compels the viewer to imagine what it smells like inside and to run away without ever knowing. A piece of artistic genius.

[Photo found amid foodstuffs at Bockety. More Babe Magnetism here.]

Here’s to Your Nulls, and more…

Since this is SNTC Anniversary month, we offer this tribute.

Okay. Assume you’re a male bee and… oh nevermind. The allegory doesn’t work with conchs. Let’s move on.

This configuration is designed for a two-person study group. The checkerboard has been removed for clarity.

Note the absence of TP. Note the presence of the sponge on a stick. Note that the sponge on a stick is not for cleaning the chamber pot. Note that the chain flushes nothing, but rings a chime.

Note that this is how very important people did it, and be glad that you didn’t have to answer the bell.